Day 1: Arrival

The transfer to our hotel in Pompeii takes about 40 minutes from either Naples airport or its central railway station. Your tour director will be on hand to help you get acquainted with your surroundings. Depending on everyone’s arrival times, our welcome meeting and included dinner can be either this evening or tomorrow.

Day 2: Naples and the National Archaeological Museum

Today the unofficial capital of Southern Italy, Naples has a liveliness not seen anywhere else in the country. Once a highlight of the Grand tour, it is now a teeming, passionate metropolis, a colourful and chaotic pageant of a place perched precariously between a charming coast and a menacing volcano. The city began life as one of the earliest Greek colonies in Italy and reached its zenith as a royal capital of medieval, renaissance and Bourbon kings.

We pay particular attention to the National Archaeology Museum, which is the principal home for antiquities from Pompeii and the region, including a stunning collection of frescoes, mosaics, statuary and everyday objects from Roman times – a perfect introduction to the sites you will be visiting during the week. The museum has recently opened a new Magna Graecia wing, which now provides a more comprehensive view of the whole of Campania and Southern Italy from the Greek colonization of the 8th century BC onwards.

Deep beneath the city’s busy streets lies a quieter, hidden world of archaeology; underground Naples. We avoid the claustrophobic tunnels and venture instead just 30 feet below the church of San Lorenzo Maggiore to explore the easily accessible, well-lit and most completely excavated part of Naples. Here we walk along a Roman road beside a two-storey Macellum (marketplace) which formed part of the 2nd century BC forum, and we identify the superimposed layers upon which Naples developed from ancient Greek to modern times.

Your included dinner in the hotel this evening is an opportunity to socialise with your fellow travellers.

Day 3: Pompeii

Your tour director has excavated at Pompeii and will show you areas of this famous site that most people don’t get to see, including the newly excavated areas where the most interesting recent discoveries have been found.

Pompeii grew into a thriving commercial centre in the favoured Roman resort area of the Bay of Naples until it was obliterated in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. That event created one of the world’s most important archaeological sites, and we dedicate a whole day to exploring this almost complete ancient townscape. After our guided tour, and with our hotel located right next to the site, you can wander freely through the ancient town and its backstreets and decide for yourself when to return to the hotel.

Day 4: Paestum

This gem of a site is often missed by tours but is a magnificent opportunity to see one of the most striking and best-preserved set of Greek temples from anywhere in the ancient world.

It is a beautiful, impressive site in a quiet setting which was once one of the most significant Greek foundations in Italy, The majesty of the ancient city, with its state of the art temples, is still evident today and certainly had a profound impact on the Romans. Greek culture was fundamental to Roman culture, and Paestum was exactly the sort of place where the interaction took place.

The museum, with its incredible collection of painted tombs, including the famous Tomb of the Diver, is as impressive as the site. We have arranged for special access to the museum’s storerooms, where we are treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the wonderfully painted tombs which are the really unique aspect of this site. Mostly dating to the 4th century BC, these extraordinary frescoes were produced by Italic peoples living alongside Greek colonists, and they give us precious information about the origins of Roman culture. They depict a variety of scenes, including warriors returning from war, funerals, little understood divinities and even the earliest representations of gladiatorial combats.

Day 5: Herculaneum, Oplontis and Boscoreale

Herculaneum, like Pompeii, was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. But here we experience a smaller town with a more intimate feel, a colourful community enjoying life in a favoured seaside resort and brought to us by exceptional preservation of organic remains. Our visit includes the newly refurbished Cardo V, which is revealing new secrets about the people who lived there.

We also visit the nearby Villa Oplontis, which likely belonged to the family of the Emperor Nero’s second wife and still retains its stunning frescoes, one of the most important collections of frescos of any villa luxuria of the Roman world. The villa, which is currently being partially excavated, helps us further appreciate the range of sites in the wider Pompeian landscape, and we continue this theme with a visit to the recently opened Roman farm at Boscoreale on the slopes of Vesuvius. Excavations here are providing real insight into rural life on the outskirts of Pompeii, in a suburb known as Civita Giuliana.

Day 6: Stabia and Terzigno

Stabia is known to us as the place where Pliny the Elder lost his life while trying to rescue people from the eruption of 79 AD, as related by his nephew Pliny the Younger. There were two very opulent maritime villas on the coast here; the Villa Arianna, which preserves precious frescos, and the spectacular Villa San Marco, equipped with private baths and an enormous reflecting pool. We also visit Stabia’s newly opened Museo Archeologico Libero d’Orsi, which preserves priceless artefacts and frescos recovered from the area.

We include lunch today and finish with a private visit to the archaeological museum in Terzigno on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. The exhibition here is entitled “Pompeii beyond the walls” and highlights life in the countryside and its relationship with the fertile volcano.

Day 7: Bay of Pozzuoli

In Roman times the largest town on the Bay of Naples was neither Pompeii nor Naples but Pozzuoli, which grew as the major commercial port. It was correspondingly embellished with fine buildings, including one of the largest amphitheatres in the empire and now one of the best places to see the underground structures of a gladiatorial arena.

The whole stretch of coast around the Bay of Pozzuoli was a favoured Roman vacation spot; prestigious and fashionable, it attracted the rich and famous and was also the main naval base for the Roman Imperial fleet. Pliny the Younger witnessed the eruption of Mount Vesuvius from here, and Robert Harris took inspiration from the vast cisterns at the Piscina Mirabilis for the opening scene of his novel on Pompeii. We witness the opulence of the age at sites such as Pausilypon and Baiae.

We include a farewell dinner, a wonderful way to end our week of extraordinary insights into daily life in ancient Rome’s most richly cultured riviera.

Day 8: Departure

Time to head home, or why not stay longer and make the most of your time in Italy? There is plenty more one can do  – feel free to ask us for information and ideas.